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A Q+A with author and punk veteran Alice BagBY BLONA JONBS

he New York City punk-rock scene of the 1970s had its fair shareof admirers for good reason. The city was the backdrop to themusic of Patti Smith, the Ramones, the Velvet Underground, anda slew of other prolific degenerates-turned-household names.As punk rock blossomed, it proved to be a genre that could not

be contained. In Los Angeles, a scene emerged that glittered withjust as much experimental talent, though it never got the amountof documentation it deserved. L.A. bands like the Screamers, theGerms, X, and the Bags were diverse in both sound and appearance,showing that punk rock could be inclusive to daring people of all sexualorientations, genders, and ethnicities.

One notable figure from the first wave of L.A. punk is AliceBag, frontwoman of the Bags. Though the band releasedonly a few EPS, Alice Bag had a long-lasting influence onpunk with her menacing stage presence and boomingvoice. In the 1981 documentary Decline of Western Civiliza-tion, which traced the roots of L.A. punk, she can be seenjumping, screaming, and inciting a near riot from stage.As a Chicana, she also became a personal heroine to manywomen of color who wanted to become leaders in their ownlocal punk scenes.

Bag went on to make music in the bands Las Tres, Stay atHome Bomb, and Cholita!, which included artist Vaginal Davis.Currently, Bag writes the blog Diary of a Bad Housewife, anaccount of her life as a mother, rebel. and musician. She alsomaintains an online archive documenting the work of otherfirst-wave L.A. punk-rock women. Serving as an antidote tocommonplace male oral histories, the archive contains photosand interviews with women from the front lines of punk rock-musicians, photographers, managers, and those who "had nospecific title but helped with anything to keep the scene going.

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I could use in my community. If I could have a punk show where people were on the samewavelength as me, then that could be a community that works together to achieve com-mon goals. We could be a force that changes the world. And you could be a leader. Youcan be the person making the change happen, not just someone who is along for the ride.Punk rock really taught me that I had much more power than I realized.

Staying true to punk rock's do-it-yourself attitude, Bag wrote the recently published memoir Violence

Girl, giving a firsthand account of the musical movement and engaging young women of color inalternative culture. The book encompasses scenes from her youth that reach further than her stintwith the Bags. Outside of her contributions to music, readers gain insight into Bag's life, from a

childhood in an abusive home to learning English as a second language, from becoming a rabid EltonJohn fan to visiting Nicaragua as a graduate student.

Bitch chatted with Alice Bag, whose real name is Alicia Velasquez, about her experience frontingthe Bags, her preference for performing with all-female bands, and surviving domestic violence earlyin her life.

What inspired you to write a memoir?

Well, it's a combination of things. First, I wasblogging for about eight years. Then, my friendRaquel Gutierrez, who was writing the play TheBarber of East L.A., asked me what life was like inEast L.A. in the '70S. We were just having drinksand I was telling her stories. She took me asideand told me I should really think about writing abook. I don't know why at that particular time itresonated when it hadn't before.

You could have chosen to write solelyabout your experience with the Bags inyour memoir, but you also document lifeas an early adolescent and as a gr-~duatestudent. Were you looking to broadenyour audience by includingthis information?

I wasn't writing [the book] for a punk fan. It'sgreat that it appeals to punks, but I was hoping toconnect with young women who would have morein common with me, even if they weren't particu-larly interested in punk. I learned a lot of stuffin my life that could help other people. I wantedto share the feeling of empowerment that camefrom all of the different experiences I had and theprocess of growth and evolution in my life.

How has punk rock contributed to youridentity as a feminist?

Punk, overall, made me feel I could take thatpower of being on stage and translate it into power

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In your book, you express that you originally wanted the Bags to be an all-female group. Why? And how do you think the band would have been dif-ferent had it been all women?

I think women are just more supportive of each other in different ways. I was writing a lotwhen we first started the band. Then, as soon as our guitar player, Craig Lee-who wasalso a television writer-joined, I kind of stopped writing. So did Patricia, my bass player.When we first started the band, we had written about 75 percent of the songs, and nearthe end we each had maybe one or two songs in the set. It's not that the guys in the bandtreated us any differently. It was just easy, for me, to hand over the reins and stop chal-lenging myself because the guys had more experience, which was bad for me in the longterm. The same thing happened to me in high school. When the guys are being asked toanswer more than girls, you know you can just sit there and smile and nod. There's not alot of pressure to produce or excel.

It's so rare for women of color to write about their involvement in punkrock. What do you think people can gain from these firsthand accounts?

I feel like women, and especially women of color, are left out of histories all the time. Iwish people like Maddog [drummer of the Controllers] or Dianne Chai [Alley Cats bassistand vocalist] would write memoirs, because I would love to hear from women from otherethnic groups, or queer women. If you only get one perspective, your history is skewed. SoI do feel it's important that I'm writing a firsthand account, that I'm a woman, and thatI'm a Chicana.

I didn't always realize that my being a woman of color would matter. I would just singabout my own personal emotions that weren't gender-specific or specific to my ethnicity.Then, years later, people would tell me the fact that I was a Latina meant something to

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them. It made them feel like they could [front a band]. So.you never know who you're touching.

In your book, you discuss how the early L.A. punkscene was very egalitarian. What do you think fos-tered this inclusion?

None of us really fit in within our own neighborhoods. Eventhough I claim my Chicana identity. when I first tried to joinMEChA, which is the student movement in school for Chi-canos, they kind of snickered at the way I was dressed. I feltlike I wasn't welcome. You had to project a certain image tobe considered a serious Chicano activist. Being a freaky Hol-lywood glam fan wasn't going to be taken seriously.

Hollywood was a place [punks] could go that was accepting.We all had the same attitude. If anything was innovative youwould give it a chance. and if anything was wrong you weregoing to write or create something to show how you felt aboutit. It was more than a music scene. it was a community.

The future waves of punk in L.A., like '80s hard-core, weren't as inclusive. What happened?

There were a lot of drug-use problems in our scene. andthere was another scene. hardcore, that was coming up reallystrong and was picking up fans. That scene became the onethat was better documented. For a while. I think peoplethought that was punk. You know, it's a bunch of white guysslamming into each other. There's no room for people ofcolor. women, or people who identify as queer in the moshpit. It was really homogenous and it was really the opposite ofwhat punk had started as.

In Violence Girl, you write about witnessing domes-tic violence in your parents' relationship, and thenexperiencing it in a romantic relationship. Whatdid you hope to convey about domestic violence bydocumenting these relationships?

I think two things: that you can survive it. and that it's notsomething that can be accepted in a relationship. I don't thinkmy mother should have stayed in that relationship. And I don'tthink she should have told me that she stayed because shewas trying to hold the marriage together for my sake. Thosethings made me angry. I feel·that if you're in that situationor if someone is telling you that. you gotta call them on theirbullshit. It's one thing when someone attacks you and youleave. It's another thing when you keep coming back. At thatpoint you need to analyze your own role in it.

And I don't know if all that comes through in the book.but I realized that because I was around it as a child. I reallyinternalized it. When I got in a band and was able to releaseall of this rage. it had already done damage to me. It surfacedwhen I found myself hitting my boyfriend in a very similarway that my father had hit my mother. It was shocking to methat somehow this really ugly trait manifested in me.

I just want people to be aware that when you grow uparound that. sometimes it's in you and you have to figure outa way to address it and check yourself. Make sure you're notgoing to end up in a situation where you play either role. Youcan't have a healthy psyche if you're either abusing someoneor allowing yourself to be abused.

There are so many ways people canheal themselves. Somepeople find it through talking to a friend or reading. othersneed therapy. and some people find it through spirituality.Do whatever it is that makes you feel like you can find yourcenter and figure out whether you're on the path of where youwant to be. (l)

Alice Bag's blog, Diary of a Bad Housewife, is atalicebag.blogspot.com. f:I.on.a.Jones is a writerand editor living in New York City. Find her atelonajones.com.

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